China in uproar over Egyptian vandalism

“Ding Jinhao was here.” This sentence has caused a storm in Chinese social media this week.

It seems a Nanjing teenager, whose parents took him on a trip to Egypt, carved his name into a more-than-three-millennia-old relief at the Temple of Luxor. While the defacement took place several years ago, online tipsters recently exposed the perpetrator, prompting his parents to confess publicly to a local newspaper on Saturday, in what the South China Morning Post described as “an apologetic interview.”

While the young Ding reportedly spent a night crying over regret for the act, Chinese microbloggers have also mourned the incident, with many posts on Sina Weibo saying the vandalism has brought shame on China. Some who said they had since visited Egypt, reported feeling compelled to apologize to their Egyptian tour guides on behalf of the nation.

According to the South China Morning Post, the website of Ding’s former elementary school even suffered a hacking that replaced the homepage with an image of the graffiti.

Some of the coverage of the Luxor vandalism has focused on how mainland Chinese are increasingly dominating the global tourism market. But Caixin Online offered its own take – namely that some (though certainly not most) Chinese tourists have little compunction when it comes to “leaving their mark” on ancient sites, even Chinese ones. Specifically, Caixin is running a slide show of Chinese graffiti left on various historic landmarks. (See the slide show here)

Not to defend Ding’s juvenile actions, but Egypt’s ancient monuments have a long history of suffering the etchings of vandals from around the world. For instance, a number of ancient monuments near Cairo still bear graffiti from the French troops who served in Napoleon’s 1798-1801 campaign there.

China in uproar over Egyptian vandalism

“Ding Jinhao was here.” This sentence has caused a storm in Chinese social media this week.

It seems a Nanjing teenager, whose parents took him on a trip to Egypt, carved his name into a more-than-three-millennia-old relief at the Temple of Luxor. While the defacement took place several years ago, online tipsters recently exposed the perpetrator, prompting his parents to confess publicly to a local newspaper on Saturday, in what the South China Morning Post described as “an apologetic interview.”

While the young Ding reportedly spent a night crying over regret for the act, Chinese microbloggers have also mourned the incident, with many posts on Sina Weibo saying the vandalism has brought shame on China. Some who said they had since visited Egypt, reported feeling compelled to apologize to their Egyptian tour guides on behalf of the nation.

According to the South China Morning Post, the website of Ding’s former elementary school even suffered a hacking that replaced the homepage with an image of the graffiti.

Some of the coverage of the Luxor vandalism has focused on how mainland Chinese are increasingly dominating the global tourism market. But Caixin Online offered its own take – namely that some (though certainly not most) Chinese tourists have little compunction when it comes to “leaving their mark” on ancient sites, even Chinese ones. Specifically, Caixin is running a slide show of Chinese graffiti left on various historic landmarks. (See the slide show here)

Not to defend Ding’s juvenile actions, but Egypt’s ancient monuments have a long history of suffering the etchings of vandals from around the world. For instance, a number of ancient monuments near Cairo still bear graffiti from the French troops who served in Napoleon’s 1798-1801 campaign there.